Saturday, March 14, 2009

6.6 million-mile trip, but you can pack only 10 items

Last year at this time, Col. Greg Johnson was realizing his dream. He was the pilot of the Endeavor Space Shuttle and in the middle of a 16-day trip in space. The trip involved 250 orbits of earth and a stop at the space station where he helped build a robot. When he came home he had travelled 6.6 million miles.

When astronauts go into space, they are allowed to take 10 personal items. Johnson chose photos of his family, photos of his parents, the usual choices. One item was not so usual, though -- the ♠A playing card from an ACBL offical deck of cards.

As you probably guessed, Johnson is a bridge player who is participating here at the Houston North American Bridge Championship. I interviewed him yesterday, and he said he took the card to express his appreciation of bridge and his love of the game.

ADDENDUM: After the interview, he told this (that I couldn't include in the story for obvious reasons). NASA is big on abbreviations and acronyms. When he applied for NASA he was what is called an Astronaute Candidate. They call them Ass Cans. When you get accepted into the program, you're called an Astronaut Hopeful, which they call Ass Ho for short! Too funny.

“I want to play bridge more, said Johnson, but my job gets in the way. I hoped to play the entire time here, but there is another launch scheduled some time this week, and if it goes as scheduled, I’ll have to be on duty.”

Say what? Space flight got in the way of cards? How can ANYTHING get in the way of space flight?! I'd even give up poker for an orbit or two. At least during take off (chips might fall over the place).